O'Donnell confirms Shepperd will stay at Dundalk but remains tightlipped on others

Stephen O’Donnell has confirmed Nathan Shepperd will be remaining at Dundalk FC for a second season, after the Welsh goalkeeper was named as the club’s player of the year.

The 22-year-old has been a revelation since joining The Lilywhites from Brentford back in January, churning out some remarkable performances between the sticks, the latest of which saw him make a string of saves in Friday night’s 2-1 home win over Bohemians.

The Democrat previously disclosed that although Shepperd’s contract was set to expire, the option of an additional year could be initiated by the club at the end of the campaign.

“There’s an option with Nathan,” confirmed head coach O’Donnell. “We had an option when we signed him and it’s the club’s option.

“We do want him and he will be here next year. That’s a black and white one with Nathan. There was a year option when he signed. It was one year and our option on the second year, and obviously we’ll be activating that option.”

Clarity on the status of Shepperd comes less than a week after the club announced that 19-year-old Ryan O’Kane had penned a two-year deal until the end of the 2024 season.

Patrick Hoban, whose long-awaited return to the squad was delayed due to illness on Friday, is also contracted until 2024; while Shepperd will also join Alfie Lewis, Daniel Kelly, Greg Sloggett, John Martin, Robbie McCourt and Paul Doyle in the 2023 panel.

Loan signings Lewis Macari (Stoke City), Steven Bradley and Runar Hauge (both Hibernian) are all due to return to their parent club after Sunday evening’s SSE Airtricity League fixture against Derry City at the Ryan McBride Brandywell (kick-off, 7pm).

Brian Gartland, Andy Boyle, Sam Bone, Robbie Benson, Peter Cherrie, Darragh Leahy, Keith Ward, Joe Adams, John Mountney and David McMillan are all out of contract.

“I’m not going to be chatting yes or no with any of the lads,” explained O’Donnell. “I told the lads to concentrate on the finish of the season. We told everyone that after the Derry game, there would be individual meetings with everyone.

“That’s the way I operate, contrary to reports at different clubs and that,” he added, taking a swipe at acquisitions from his former employer, St Patrick’s Athletic.

“I don’t see them signing up many early, funnily enough this season. Where are all their multiple signings, getting lads on long-term deals? I think they’re letting a lot of contracts run out too.

“That’s the way I do it. I don’t like a squad having distractions. Obviously, the nature of the League of Ireland is a lot of people are going to be on one-year deals, so what do you do? Do you talk to 15 lads and not talk to four lads, and you want everyone on the same page to go at the end of the season?

“Ryan O’Kane’s probably a separate example. He had a year left, a young player coming up. He needed to be rewarded for the form he’d shown, for his jump from a youth player to a really important first-team player. The rest will be meetings individually after the Derry game.”

A larger squad will be required, after Dundalk’s win over Bohs ensured a third-place finish, and a passage into the Europa Conference League’s first-qualifying-round stage.

The Lilywhites will enter the competition next July with an 8.5 coefficient that will more than likely yield favourable opposition for O’Donnell’s team in the opening two rounds.

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“It is brilliant. The last couple of coaching jobs I’ve had, in the summertime, June and July, you’re watching the other Irish teams in Europe, so I’m looking forward to having a crack at it.

“We didn’t want the season to end with the players not feeling that they’ve achieved anything. I didn’t think they deserved that. In my heart of hearts at the start of the season, I felt that Europe would be an unbelievable achievement.

“With the established squads, with the money that’s floating about in the league, I felt if we got Europe, it would be a monumental achievement from whatever group of players we did cobble together.

“I want them to feel the sense of achievement, because I think it’s gone under the radar in regards the effort of the players and where we were.

“I just think Dundalk has that name, that it’s well established, it’s successful, it’s taken as a given. But I don’t think there was many clubs with the start-off point in mid-December that Dundalk was at in regards getting a competitive squad together.”